How the NHL is bringing sports fans onchain

Transcript

why did the NHL launch a nft platform for digital Collectibles the NHL is one of the largest professional sports leagues in the world with over 5 billion in annual revenue and in November they launched NHL Breakaway in partnership with sweet now millions of NHL fans can collect highlights from their favorite teams and players trade online and complete sets in order to win rewards in today's doer Spotlight we're joined by La Morad CMO sweet and Ray Lou the exact VP of product of sweet to discuss the perfect match between sports and digital Collectibles the early results of NHL breakway and why they are seeing such

great success with NHL fans being able to come onchain how site has built their product for web 2 users to frictionlessly be able to collect their favorite moments from their favorite players and their favorite teams and what the future looks like for the NHL and NHL Breakaway as they ramp up to the coming NHL allstar game and they look to bring more fans on chain throughout this year and in the years to come gmgm welcome to we3 Academy your one trusted source to capitalize on the next big phase of the internet we are here to make sense of an onchain World in

constant trans formation I'm jbird your host for today's episode and I believe that Sports digital Collectibles is going to change the world GM GM La Ray welcome to web three Academy thanks for having us thanks for having us really excited to have you guys on the show today I'm a massive sports fan I'm an NHL fan being from Canada but I love all sports and I'm so excited to dive into this intersection of Sports and digital Collectibles because I think there is so much there that is untapped potential we're just so early in that part of what we're building on

chained in web 3 either one of you can take this first question or both of you can take it because I'm sure you both have thoughts but why do Sports and digital collectibles in your mind make so much sense together I'll jump in briefly I think when you think of digital Collectibles there is no better place in sports I think in your mind anybody who's been a sports fan played Sports watched Sports whether you're athletic or not we all tend to kind of gravitate to certain plays certain memories whether it's in hockey was it a say was it Liu's short-handed goal in game two coming down was it playing soccer football obj's catch you know Jordan's last second or not quite last

second shot to win win his six title things like that are always ingrained in our memor so you could think of things from the majors which I just talked about the Jordans or you can think of the small things like you know the past that made the shot the whatever it is and we all kind of personally had this kind of insatiable appetite for watching sports and seeing kind of miracles happen on a daily basis and things that defy odds where all the stats come up this will never happen and it happens those are the memories that kind of make it you combine it with family friends watching it and you start to put these plays I remember where I was when X happened and so being able to

commemorate that actual moment that actual piece in that memory with a play or a highlight kind of also doesn't just bring you back to the game itself and the team you love and the players you love it brings you back to where you were and who you were with and that's what makes sports collectibles to me and to the Sweet team like the perfect intersection of where where Collectibles need to grow because art pieces are one thing beautiful great hang in your wall but when you think of those moments the highlights with the rarely before scen footage the audio things like that it it creates an emotion that I don't think anything else can create yeah yeah I would Echo that 100% it's really building on top of you know if you look

at traditional Collectibles whether that's cards or posters or jerseys that's still like static in capturing that one moment in time it's still not as visceral as like okay now it's an audio visual experience I I can't imagine you know I want to say years who knows like six months from now where it's like oh now you own the highlight and now okay let's VR put you in a seat right like at that game right that would be the next level the next level on to that is probably like time travel right and going back to that moment exactly but it's how can we create that like emotional experience that's the core of every sports fan and sports collector and you both brought up the difference in that collecting sports memorabilia right now it's static you're

collecting a physical item which obviously doesn't have audio and visual is that one of the big unlocks that we're seeing with digital Collectibles that are available on chain in the form of nfts is that now it is a moving video with sound is that one of the big things are you also still seeing people collect static imagery in the digital form as well I don't think it's a or I think it's an end you're still flexing your fom you're still buying the jerseys you're still buying the hats you might still pick up trading cards when you're out and about the physical ones the advantage this has is you're out with friends you're just sitting whether it's

someone's house out to eat to have a drink whatever you can pull up your phone and kind of share that moment right there and then whereas you know traditionally those cards have been put in a binder or a shoe box upstairs in the Attic or whatever your partner in crimes like get rid of those things like go shove them somewhere I've never want to see him and you know even like I'm sitting here and I've got a Pele and a Beckham sign Jersey they're static I can go out and tell someone no one can actually see them unless they're in my house that's the real advantage and and it actually becomes a talking point it's like kind of that oh do you remember this let me show you and then there a

whole conversation and narrative whereas if you just show a card of Jordan back to basketball or if you show Mark Messier or Patrick W or Lemieux or Gretzky or whoever Conor McDavid Conor Bard you're just sitting there going okay great but you don't start to talk about that you know as they say filthy wrist shot that he had as his you know or his first goal or whatever he broke his jaw you don't kind of see that moment but when you play that for someone you kind of all start to talk about oh I remember that oh wow that was a hit that was a sick shot whatever it was and I think that's what we're capturing we're we're saying you can collect everything else we don't want to stop you in addition to that this is a way to have it be dynamic to be

interactive like start the conversation I think that's where we see this going and it's just getting started yeah I think the the unlock is certainly like the the dynamic media in and of itself and the sharability of it I think it's but by no means it's like a replacement of but it's a complement to Collectibles that already exist and we think like you know the other unlocks that are more native to to web 3 is is one kind you know authenticity and two building Community right so there there is no Community I mean I'm not aware of a community today of like hey who are all the Jack Hughes Jersey collectors right let's all jump into a Facebook group or a Discord whereas now like like that's part of the culture of digital

Collectibles and same with authenticity right as mentioned like in general in the space all of us are just getting started and so we're building the foundation and just imagine three five 10 years from now now we have fans and collectors who have mass collections who are that are authentic that are recognized by the league or the brand or the team or the personality and now they can now identify those fans and collectors and figure out new ways to reward them new ways to give them more exclusive content uh in the future yeah which sort of gets into access which is one of the biggest things that fans really want we we'll come back to access and what we can do in the future later on in this show uh but we're just getting started and it's so true but I

want to go back to NBA top shots really started not just sports collectibles on chain it really started the nft Mania it was really the first project that made it mainstream and that everybody said wow like this nfts have got something here I I'm just curious your guys where were you when that happened when NBA shop shots came up what was your reaction to that how did it guide your ruly thoughts around digital Collectibles and maybe what did working with the NHL and launching their NHL Breakaway platform we can sort of lead into how that led the NHL's thoughts of doing something similar to the NBA yeah so for me I was working at another

company during the pandemic and we were actually talking to to Dapper about digital Collectibles platform so that's how I got introduced to topshot I was actually like got I think a beta invitation before the actual beta invitations and I think my experience with Top Shot was similar to like more broadly digital collectibles in general where it it certainly took a minute to like wrap your head around it of like well how is this different for me personally once I started collecting then it it's like then for me I get it like I grew up collecting baseball cards hockey cards I collected marble cards magic the Gathering so for me I played a ton of video games growing up it was a very natural fit for the things that I I grew up and love to to collect and so

like you have that and then it's just like one getting into the communities right finding a group of like-minded uh fans and collectors and it's just like the the fun of it right whether it's topshot early on I was super into FX hash and in tesos like object so just having fun collecting art and really real creative things and just for the pure Joy of just like experienc it like this is amazing let me show this share this on Twitter let me share this on Instagram and I think that that's kind of like the opportunity that we have with scaling this and and having wider adoption how do we get folks in the door and get that first experience from there I think all of us you know are striving to build the greatest product possible and so it's really just about like that

initial education that initial first step of getting people through the door yeah and and for me I think take everything R said and then fast forward to NHL comes out you know a couple years later and kind of the patience to build it the patience to do it really really focusing um on the fans the everyday fan as well as the web three collectors who are actually out there and then things that you can replicate that bring that nostalgic moment back to you so we all remember having trading cards or whatever anything on the playgrounds where you kind of can only trade within the circles like whoever you physically can touch like I be like oh you live in Whistler Canada how am I going to get

you this like that just wasn't happening I wouldn't even know what you had what you had and so focusing that way we launched the trade Lounge which allow you quick seamlessly I'm a jack fugh fan he oh who everybody's in Jersey that has it like I'm in California how do I get it well the playground doesn't work that way but the digital component does and so making that easy making it easy for the fans to collect to trade you know to buy sell it it's really important so you know that's where we focused in on is really focusing on on The Fan Experience and them as our true north as opposed to kind of oh we only want it to be to the small group of

people yeah it's a good point that uh it often makes me think about European Sports when I think about community in North America our communities around our Sports are just not as developed as soccer or football if you want to call it football in Europe like they have and and you know I'm in Canada I'm not in Europe and nor am I a massive European soccer fan by any means but some of my teammates are in Europe and one of them's a a massive Chelsea fan you know and he doesn't even live in England he's lives in Romania and he's part of a community in Romania that like hangs out and watches the Chelsea games together and so there is so much go sports is

bringing people together as you guys said and so now we can do that digitally in a way that we never could before it feels like a huge unlock I want to lead into from working with the NHL like when the NHL first came to you guys or you first started meeting with them what were their objectives with this were they trying to make Revenue were they trying to build community and focus on the fans I mean I'm sure they have multiple objectives I'm just always curious what is the right now their focus and how do they measure success with something like NHL Breakaway so I I'll let Ray answer parts of this but I just want to clarify one thing we're not only working in partnership with the NHL

we're working in partnership with the alumni associ NHL Alumni Association and the Players Association everyone came on board which was really critical to the success of this as opposed to oh we have the NHL and then you know there's other alumni groups or players associations as you know sports are complex more complex than most people realize in terms of groups and things so it's really a testament to the NHL and to site as we came together to really bring everyone into the fold as to what we're trying to accomplish and how we're trying to enhance the experience of the fans of the NHL and the hockey experience itself and I think it was critical that that happened and it happened early and I think it's been uh a testate to everyone

jumping on board and you know being a part of the program yeah I I I think can't speak directly on behalf of the NHL I think as as we work with them and as we look at it it really is how do we make the experience better for fans how do we introduce new fans to the sport of hockey and how do we help fans deepen their Phantom right so if we do all those three things then everything else whether that's you know marketing Revenue like an ancillary products that the league or teams have all of those fall into place but if we're not super serving the fans and making this experience better for them if this isn't additive to their Love of the Game then like we shouldn't even start right so it all has to be I saw this great moment

watching it on TV or seeing it in person or it could be nostalgic right oh like like I remember watching the the Devils w win the cup in the 90s and how do I relive that moment and how do I easily connect with other groups of fans where now 30 years later we're scattered all across the country but how do we rekindle that and and find each other so I think that that's kind of like the core truth that grounds kind of everything we're building strategically and from a product development standpoint I got to ask which are your fan alignments you both you both keep bring up Jack Hughes and the Devils so are you both New Jersey Devil that that's that's that's Ray yeah I I grew up in New Jersey so I'm 44 I do remember

the the Heyday of the Devils the neutral zone trap I wasn't into like the ex's nose of hockey as much but certainly watched the playoffs at the the time you know back then it was newspaper so like the day after they went in Stanley Cup I would like grab the sports page and like that's my collectible like I probably somewhere if my mom hasn't thrown him out so in my attic I have like newspapers of like devils and Yankees and Giants like winning Super Bowls or stanle cups or or championships so that's my my NHL sports origin story I grew up in Chicago so I'm went to school at Wisconsin so I tended to gravitate to the Blackhawks I went to the stany cup I saw you I saw the I saw one of the games of The Sweep you know in Chicago Stadium

Old Chicago Stadium the choses the Ron X of the world you know the bell fors of the world so that was my allegiance out in California if I had to pick one I know it's not the popular one but I go with the Ducks I was like what what other ones are there yeah there's only so many options I mean we have the Kings but I've been to Kings games I've been to Ducks games you know what I'm just gonna stick to the Ducks that's my C team but if I my heart is you know more Chicago well you I mean you both grew up in great Sports cities that's for sure like you're lucky that you grew up in a city where there was Stanley Cups being one and you could go and experience those uh I grew up in uh Toronto during the dull

days of us thinking we were the best and then never actually doing very well which continues to be the case to be honest and now I'm closer to Vancouver on the west coast and speaking they got Quinn Hughes Jack Hughes brother really the kucks now so that that feels good and my wife is an Oilers fan so I actually kind of have sh for the Oilers now because well she's die hard it's funny you bring all that up because what we find is go back years to the 90s or whatever you were fans of teams and teams kept players forever and ever right you know you think of sports Jordan yes he went to Washington but he was a bull forever and ever you think of you know the New York Nets with Patrick Ying forever and ever uh Detroit with

all the players and then you think of the iserman he was there you think of chel like they are reigned into the team and that's interesting because now what we're finding especially with when you think of Collectibles we try to make sure it's really easy that whether you love the team because a lot of people may Ray included may love the Devils but if Jack huse gets traded or moves he may still follow Jack Hughes wherever he goes and still like the devils and that is what is making so special is that the ability to be fans of teams and players is so much easier in today's world with the digital with the uh ability to collect to trade to find so you may collect teams but you may also collect

players or you may collect positions you may love goalies because you played in whatever growing up and all of a sudden you just want to collect all the goalies or the great goalies or whoever it is and I think that's what makes this so fun is that you actually can do it whereas old school it was more difficult you could but it's just much more difficult whereas now you can actually you know trade with people in New Jersey you could trade with people across the pond wherever they may be and that's really fun yeah certainly the ability to move digital assets is just you can't even compare it to the ability to move physical assets it's next to impossible to deal with the trading or buying in

selling of sports memorabilia you've got a million people in the middle you got to pay a lot of fees you can't go peer-to-peer there isn't even really a ton of marketplaces for I mean I guess like eBay and things like that but it does change drastically with NHL Breakaway and programs like that let let's talk a bit about just one one little thing I think it's really interesting because like I love shoes it's my like if I have a thing that I like to buy shoes and I just bought a pair of shoes off stockx and I'm like dude these things haven't shipped yet where are they like come on and I think it's not so instant but the technology of an nft because it's got to get shipped it's got to get authenticated

then it's shipped from them to you and you know by the time you're done it's two weeks whereas the technology and the backbone of this the blockchain nft I think that's what makes it so perfect for Collectibles it's instantly authenticated it's instantly known as a officially licensed you can add utility to it to whoever owns it you can see where who has it whose hands traded unlike in eBay or everything else if you buy whatever you may collect whether it's shoes or whatever if I get rid of them it's gone like nobody knows where they land and in this case we do know where they land and I think that's what makes the technology and the backbone of the technology so powerful is that we

can actually authenticate this was officially licensed by the NHL and this is really what you're collecting and what you're getting is authentic yes yeah so important let's talk about NHL Breakaway for those who haven't used NHL Breakaway for our listeners give us just sort of the the background on what is it what's involved how can people get involved I I mean very very high level you know the official digital Collectibles program of the NHL we've had we agreements with with the NHL the NHL PA and the NHL a so allows us to get access to player name image likeness of all the current players that we see today as well as a

fairly lengthy list of of alumni that goes back through kind of like 80s 90s and throughout the years in NHL history so that's his core we launched uh you know with beta around last summer so around June 2023 and really focused I think year one on just like laying the foundation getting the core pieces that you all see on the site today so drops Marketplace trades set completion quests coming pretty soon and then really just like learning right getting feedback from the community understanding that we're still early what's it like for the native web for user coming into the platform and what's it like for a new web to user what are the gaps and where can we learn and where can we improve some of our Communications messaging and

then where's the space in general right and where can we collectively uh continue to educate and inform uh collectors yeah I I think he said it extremely well the one thing that I think is also really great that the NHL has provided is we've got some really unique footage rarely before seen angles when you think of all the camera angles in today's environment from you know spinning around all these cameras going through broadcast only sees a few of them the only time you ever see it is like when they zero in on oh what did it what happened here and you know they're showing you a real closeup but you don't see the celebration often you don't see them you know skating to the bench and

getting the high fives and hugs and everything else after something great because they cut to the replay of the goal we get all that footage so we're able to piece together kind of the whole story of the Highlight the whole story of the moment in the play and I think that's really critical to you know what we're doing and then recently with uh what we called cuse for 90s pack where we're celebrating some of the greats of the 90s we had Kenny Albert who's the voice of the NHL on TNT as you you may be aware he uh voiced so he exclusively narrated what is what did this play mean what happened so it's almost not it's not a play byplay it's as opposed to a this was the impact that that play had

that highlight had not only in the game or to the player but to the series or to the Stanley Cup or whatever it may be and so that variation is something you won't find anywhere else you won't find anything like that on YouTube some of the highlights and clips you won't find anywhere nobody will have those images and so the fact that you know we get rarely before seen video sounds of the ice so you can hear it I I think it makes it really special yeah it's amazing I didn't realize that you were making basically new unheard un unknown footage and packaging it together in a way that was not available anywhere else which for a Super Fan is very exciting it's that's what all about like give me

access to something a clip that I've never seen before a voice like Kenny Albert that's so famous within the NHL that's so recognizable to hear him talk about that highlight means so much let's talk about to me there's four major aspects of the NHL Breakaway that I find very interesting and I think this is there's drops there's Marketplace trades and play I think everyone understands Marketplace if you're any of our listeners will get that part of it but I want to I want to touch on drop and trades in particular because La you mentioned the trade Lounge it's a unique thing that you guys have built that doesn't really exist yet on many other nft collections or platforms and I also just want to touch on drops because I think that drops it's the entry point

that anybody new is going to come into I'm I'm guessing I mean obviously they could go to the marketplace and buy something in particular if they wanted that but my guess is that they're is that what you find that the first step of a new person to NHL breakaways they're usually going to pick up a drop and then they're going to get a pack and who knows what's inside and there's an element of surprise of that that sort of feels like opening up a a pack of cards in the old days and the way we used to collect cards is that sort of the idea there or what are your thoughts around how you built out drops yeah I think drop certainly the Gateway and it most closely resembles right for web tour physical collectors like like that experience I think the marketplace is a

bit more for browsing and getting collectors at least like being able to identify like hey like what things might I get what does this highlight look and feel like but I think generally we see folks going new us just going to drops first and that's where they're making their initial purchase okay and then what about trades let's or La do you have anything to add our drop yeah I mean the other thing is we have we see people who are starting to collect favorite teams and players right so if that's your journey and that's what you're looking for Marketplace makes it super easy to filter by player filter by team quickly you know by Rarity tier whatever it is but they start with team and player and so if you're a devil stand and you want to collect all the devil's highlights go search and you

know just filter and so that makes it easy so drops drops are the unique surprise fun but a lot of people then look at Marketplace as how do I collect what I love and then trades let's talk about the trade Lounge because it's very unique what you guys have built here trade Lounge the trading was actually native to uh sweep platform right before we even worked with the NHL and again it's kind of like how do we recreate the those you know more visceral experiences I remember on the playground in the lunchroom trading hockey cards magic cards Marvel cards micro machines in my case but how do we take advantage of digital Collectibles and the online space so now what we've done is when you know if I'm I'm looking for let's use a

different I'm looking for Sydney Crosby I'm now not limited to just those people that I know or that I'm con connected with or that I follow on Twitter like now I can publish out a trade offer trade request to the entire community so now I'm looking for Sydney Crosby I'm offering a Jack Hughes now anyone who's holding that Sydney Crosby will get that trade offer and anyone will be able to accept it once the first person accepts it then that trade offer is withdraw so we're not you know obviously creating issues with with like duplicate trades or things like that but it it's like the the operate on it like as soon as we launched was incredible as launching something new you never know of like all right will it be a trickle well you you just understand the ux but immediately

like within Discord on Twitter we see people creating their own list of like okay here's what I have to offer here's what I'm looking for and people just really just taking the platform and using that to complete sets or collect more and stack their favorite player or their favorite team and also you can um you see in the trade lounge and even Marketplace you can look for addition numbers right I want the Bedard 91 that's number that's what I won so can limit it to that or you can say I just want Bard I don't care what number it is but that's that makes it fun too so it is really built for fans collectors to really look at it any way they want to look at it it reminds me of when I was a kid and you it's like Ray

you brought up Magic the Gathering and I remember Magic the Gathering Pokemon hgs like all these things that I collected and I remember trading with my friends like lunch that was so much fun and I guess this maybe gets into like the different categories of collectors for me it wasn't about making money or trying to get the most valuable piece it was just about having fun and more the game of trading and trying to get a different piece that that meant something to me not necessarily it meant somebody somebody else I guess this kind of gets into the question around who are the people right now that are engaging what in NHL Breakaway are they more those collectors looking to make money

are they more people just having fun and interacting with another way to engage with the NHL and their favorite teams or players I'll take a little bit and rake and add on to it you know early on obviously when you go out early in something like this you're going to hit a lot of collectors the community of collectors um we do find a lot of them our big hockey fans as well it's not an either or you're getting collectors who are also hockey fans and so you're getting we we got a lot those early but what's nice is you know we're going to have a presence at the Aller we're going to be around Fan Fair we're actually going to be giving away some free packs so people can get just get started so fans can start to understand it and we're doing something special with the

alumni where we have uh three former players you know who are going to get up and talk about their favorite moments their favorite highlights so the Alumni Association is kicking off a speaker series and they're GNA you know do it where they show some of the Breakaway highlights and have have a guest talking about it you've got the Doug gilmores The Glenn hey Seda Chara who are going to sit up there and tell you about their on Ice experiences and how they relive some of these memories and so as we start to grow and we start to look at it holistically we do provide the product that really does meet the needs of any collector out there as you said trade Lounge is kind of unique to us in many

ways but we also are going to be opening kind of the eyes of the NHL fans themselves to really say how do you get to participate in this and I think that's what's going to be really really fun going forward I think it really is like we have we have the core audience which you know not surprisingly a lot of comes from other sports collectible programs and then moving forward how do we start to gradually reach out to the the more web to users more kind of like broader NHL fans like are we going to get I have a friend who like literally within the past year just got comfortable with online banking right probably not going to get them right but for those that you know are mildly interested in technology whether that's you know digital Collectibles whether

that's AR VR whe whether it's just like you know playing around new apps on their iPhone I think those are great opportunities because there are folks that are interested intrigued by technology see the benefits see what types of doors and opportunities it can unlock and then how do we weave that into their love and passion for the game of hockey for their team for their favorite player to make their experience it's even more rewarded what is the onboarding process amazing to hear that you're going to have coverage at the upcoming NHL All-Star game which is in Toronto Canada very exciting that's the big question I think you know everybody in crypto web 3 has right now is like okay we know we have however many million you want to say are in the

onchain world and interacting but we're still small right we don't have the masses by any means yet because it's quite techy and quite difficult to use and there's a lot of friction now that is improving what is the the process like could I give my mom who does not have a wallet and is not going to go and Bridge eth or do anything like that could she sign up with an email and a credit card and simple on board yeah I mean I think that's what makes us unique is our platform was built on how do you make it as easy as possible it's as simple as authenticating with Google or Apple two of the big ones authenticate if you want to buy one you can pull out a credit card we do all the things on the back end it's in your collection we

make sure we record it to the blockchain and everything else all that happens behind the scenes so when I talk about blockchain technology nfts that to an a web two person who's getting into this we don't need to talk about that other than it's authentic and officially licensed and that's what's most important to them so making it easy is you don't have to set up a a a new wallet you don't have to do anything and we talked about trading and in you know Marketplace you can also gift one you can literally just not ask for anything I can send you one a pack right now and just say hey I'd like to share it with you if you get it you just click the link if you aren't registered you simply just do what I said oh I logged in with

Google great now it's in my collection I think that sweets technology that is really really easy to use and I think that's what's going to make if we're going to get to the masses and I'm talking the millions and hundreds of millions in this collectible industry I'm not just talking NHL it's got to be as easy as possible and almost feel very e-commerce light for anybody play you mentioned that you launched in sort of beta in the summer of 2023 and that I believe open Beta in November if I'm correct me if I'm wrong on that what have the results been like so far we're happy with them look we've spent a lot of time listening to the

community hearing what they had to say we launched with the trade Lounge really showing we are fan first fan focused we had gifting come earlier than that we started set completions so we were really appealing to the fans and the user base and the collectors shortly after launch Marketplace so we've had this plan all along to really focus beta on getting things right from a product from a features from making sure that the adoption the technology and everything else as we start to open it up to the rest so we're we're all excited everyone's super pumped each new feature that we rolled out we've seen like incredible adoption and and used to so it started intentionally being fan

focused around how do we allow fans with their existing collections to complete sets then to trades and then to Marketplace and then quests upcoming then I I'll say like and we're learning along the way like I'd say like the one feature that like we remove from the site one we used to have a recording ability when you opened your pack but like and this gets a little a little techy but with like kind of like new browser policies amongst Safari and chrome like it made recording a little bit difficult so that overall user experience wasn't op and we end we ended up pulling that back and because now users there Sav users are used to recording on phone or taking screenshots at least to to share kind of like the extent of their collections or or their

profiles so where we we're we're laying the foundation we're continuing to learn we definitely see a very passionate uh group of collectors online and now it's like how can we get as many features out as as safely and efficiently as possible C Kudos are you guys for for trying different things like that's what that's everybody in this space right now is crazy when they think that everything we make should work like we are so early on chain we need to test a lot we need to experiment and that means a lot of it's not going to work but that's okay like that's a good thing in my mind you both mentioned completing sets I want to just touch on that because I think that's a very thing about digital collecting versus physical collecting and physical collecting it's you can complete sets

but it's harder to do because you don't necessarily know what is within the set if you're a new collector whereas with digital collecting it can show you hey here's the next step to your collection oh you want to complete the set and then if you complete a set you can do access and utility so I want to touch on that concept of completing sets a little bit can you guys tell us a bit about that yeah so our our our sets are all themed so you know we have we have our core base set which is just great highlights from the current 2023 24 season we have sets themed around first goals whether that's first goals from current rookies or first goals from we have an opening ice Elites collection which is first goals from you know multi-time Allstars and just great conic players in the past

and so on Angel Breakaway there are Pages where you can view okay for this set of rookie goals here's the 20 highlights that are within the set here's the ones I own here's the ones that I'm looking for the ones and then soon we're going to have a feature where great now the ones you're looking for can link directly off to Marketplace can link directly off to trade loun so you can see okay now these are the ones I'm missing help me obtain that right and help me complete the set versus yeah I would go to trading card shows I never completed a physical set just by like randomly the only way I ever completed a set growing up was I went to a card show gave him $60 and got like a long box and like all right here's your set of 1990

Fleer and then I never open the box and it just sits in my attic somewhere right so it's one how do we make that fun and engaging right and some of that does again time to to trade lounge and then two how do we recognize and reward users for completing those sets and so the first kind of the V1 of that is okay now we're going to reward you with an exclusive highlight that ties into the theme of the set so now it's not just a first goal from this rookie but it may be a rookie that's not included that hasn't already been included in set or it's some compilation or it's them winning kind of the The Calder award and then that's V1 now okay three years from

now five years from now as we have collectors who continue to complete sets now how do we tie those teams together how do we reward users for completing multiple sets across multiple Seasons that's when it really starts to get fun and engaging and you get to then San okay okay these collectors love goalies these collectors love rookies these love veterans or All Stars right it one makes it exciting for collectors it makes it exciting for I think all of us working on the program because we get to see like where are folks passions where should we start to lean in more when we're cheting sets or when we're thinking about quests so yeah there but there's a lot to learn from it but a lot that we're delivering just from a fun factor to the overall collecting experience let's talk a little bit about

access because you kind of mentioned this maybe access isn't the right word here with what you just said Ry you were talking more about you know rewards but I think access is a for of reward and utility is a word that gets thrown a lot around a lot in the web 3 nft space are you guys doing anything right now with access do you have plans to do anything with access in terms of I don't know maybe it's access to tickets to a game maybe it's access to another digital collectible with working with the NHL there's so many assets available to you anything you're doing there now or have plans for in the future right now we're scratching surface in terms of rewards the ones that are currently live are

more digital collectible based rewards but yeah yeah certainly it's like a big initiative on on my plate and Lace plate the next quarter next two quarters is okay like here's the plan here's the various types of rewards that we can do and now it's okay what's the curation what's the overall fulfillment how do we scale this if we're doing let's say we just say we're doing hats if we're doing hats how do we scale fulfillment of 50,000 hats I don't know it may be a little hard right so how do we not stay at the top we talked about kind of deepening phandom and Phantom's not just purely online in digital collectible space right it's going to the merch shop it's going to the game and be like taking a tour of the Arena right when there's not a game going on free barking

free upgraded concession so I think all of those are on the table for consideration and so it's a matter of one operationally how do we execute on those two what do we think fans are looking for and most interested in and so we've been putting out a couple of surveys to the audience kind of gathering feedback on what they would like to see from the program what do they enjoy just about experiencing hockey whether that's watching that on TV or going to the game and how do we then tailor rewards and prizes that we feel kind of like satisfies the broadest audience of fans out there so nothing we can publicly announce yet but know that that's certainly heavily on our radar and something that that we've all been working towards I I was going to answer

it very simply we're looking at all the above but I think Ray's last point was super important we're listening to the community we're hearing what they want we're not just randomly gonna send people hats what everyone said I don't want to hat we GNA make sure you know we provide access utility or other things you know uh experiences or memorabilia to what they're looking for and that's the overall goal if when you think about Breakaway itself is we're centering ourselves 100% around the fans the collectors we're looking what is best for them and and the NHL to their credit has been great in supporting how do we

make this experience of the NHL bring in new fans enhance the existing experience and all of that comes in Play Just while we talk about the future I feel like I should get you guys back on here in six months anything else that's coming that you can tell us about you talk we talked a little bit about access what else is on the road map what else are you excited for the rest of 2024 from a product standpoint I'll let r ray answer I think you're going to start to see us more involved I think we're working closely with some of the clubs and doing some things special with the clubs so you'll start to see Club specific things which again unlocks when you think of unlocking utility it's not just the NHL it could be local to your local favorite team that we're looking at working with

and you know can't speak to any clubs today but I can speak to the fact that we're working together with some of the clubs to really deliver to their local fan bases as opposed to just looking at it even National fan bases but the ones who love their team and their club and then you're going to start to see our presence even more whether that's at the All-Star Game or on a Jumbotron or wherever it is that now that the product is really to me the best in the industry of sports collectibles the opening experience the pack opening the highlights themselves are really really fun really starting to kind of send that message and Shout loudly yeah so and from a product

standpoint I think certainly Quest and rewards heavily on the radar for the next three to six months I think between both product and marketing how do we continue to to to build community throughout and and tie folks together on board users who are may maybe more natively in web too and give them opportunities to to connect with others offline and then as we get six-month Mark then it's like okay like even much older than that like what does 2425 look like right if this year is L the foundation getting feedback then how do we kick off you know next October and really continue to build upon all the experiences great feedback that we've had to date love to hear it love to hear

that you're building for the future because there's a big wave coming I believe our listeners believe and we're just so early right now everyone that's interacting on chain and I think the rest of the world will get here over time especially with products like yours that make it so much easier to engage and where it's not just about speculation right you're in this because you're a fan and because you're excited not because you're trying to make $100,000 off of a monkey jpeg so it's a big difference the type of user that's coming which is super exciting I want to give you guys a chance to just give a little bit of a shill any of our

listeners that are excited about NHL Breakaway how can they get involved what what would they you tell them to do look we're gonna give you a link that you can post and everyone can get started with a free pack so start there you know get your two highlights we've got 32 teams 64 highlights get it then if you don't like what you get hop over to the trade line or the marketplace do whatever you want to do and you know really have fun with it but again I think you nailed it it's like collect your passion collect the teams you love the players you love like that's what to me is exciting is getting people involved in in a sport they love to see footage they've never seen before to share it to talk about it to hold it on their phone when they're

out and about with friends and so we'll share a link you can share a link uh when you post this and we'll talk about you know getting people involved amazing we'll throw the link in the show notes everybody listening that's awesome you guys can get your first free pack on NHL Breakaway whether you're an NH show fan or not this is your chance to just try another platform and to experience it which is really the best way that we all learn right now because as we said earlier there's so much experimentation happening and if you're either building onchain or you want to be involved in the onchain world the best way to learn is by just participating uh okay want to go to a speed round a couple fun questions for you guys I know

you're excited about this before we wrap here okay first question what's an nft you'll never sell for me there's a question called the oracles which is it's it's on tesos it's like they build themselves as the first generative pfp collection so it's about like nine months ago when a lot of P platforms were coming out so I've got like 20 of those so but I feel like there's at least one or two I'll still hang on to regardless just as it being like the first of its kind so that's M I don't know who I would never sell I hate to say it that way no you could say you sell them all all I'll just say like I like to collect what I love and so when I get

emotionally connected to something I'm not selling because I just don't want to like in the the meaning for me is this is not about money Financial this is really about collect you love if I have things in my collection that I don't care for and someone wants it I will gift it to you because I don't really care even if it has value because it's not about that it's funny yeah because mine mine almost is like a bragging rights thing of like hey like I got the first like one of this type of pfp that was ever made right yeah so that to me you know it goes back to I think your question hearkens back to the days of like I've got an autographed Jordan I've got a autographed P Jersey he passed away people are like oh are you getting going to sell it and I'm like no sorry

like I think digital Collectibles are going to fall into that same camp of like I'm not gonna give up my grety hattick you know I'm not GNA give up whatever it is I think when people start to look at this as collecting what they love that's when adoption grows yeah and that and that thing that you love doesn't need to be some Allstar magical moment in the league it could just be maybe it's a highlight from the first game you went to and that is meaning to you but doesn't mean anything to anybody like you know or has less meaning to other people 100% at home and an adct I totally have like one or two sports programs that are literally worthless but hey this was my first game at

Brenden Bird Arena or at Yankee Stadium right it's personal and and it's for me right so some a lot of Collectibles can just be for that it's not like okay what what happens after this like no like nostalgic right yeah totally okay next question a mustre book I'll give you two I'll save Ray the trouble I'll give you two Ray can give his two or one professionally I love the book called the culture map it really talks about as we move into this Global World you're in Canada you move into Europe you talk about friends in Romania or wherever they may be it really talks about the difference in cultures and working outside people and how people approach things really great

read if I go to the personal side a CIA Loosely based on truth called the killer Collective by Barry eer outstanding book m is a house of leaves it's by marxy marxy danieli it's a bit of a Sci-Fi novel it's kind of like Blair Witch meets I don't know Inception where it's like you're reading a novel but then within that there's a novel within that there's like footnotes of narrator like narrator notes about about the context and so it's like an adventure just reading it know it St you have like sideways and all kinds of things as should go to it so apologize sorry I was hitting Decline and it wouldn't decline

this is okay it's okay we're over time by a few minutes where your next call to go to so we'll wrap up here's our last question it's the billboard question everybody's favorite question on this show if you had a billboard that one billion people were gonna see what would you write on it now now I feel like I have to give two answers literally my first answer was breathe and and then I thought it was coincidental because that's how you know we started the show and it's just like there's a lot of stuff going on whether it's you know work or personal and just like how to just like pause and take a breath and understand and you know take a moment everyone's going through the same journey and not have things that you know maybe affect you right now affect how you're interacting with someone at

the gym or at the coffee shop because then there's like the butterfly effect so how do you bring that positivity positivity everywhere you go my second crazy answer is is I would put a a QR code on there and that QR code would just take you to a pinpoint of a map of exactly where you are just because I think it would be fun and Incredibly confusing for people like what's this Q what's this billboard and you scan it's like oh I'm here okay cool and there's probably some deep philosophical thing to that sounds kind of creepy though that you know where I am I was thinking from a business standpoint I always kind of remind myself of this one quote like I kind of came up with the quote so I I'm maybe I stole it from someone long time ago but

I don't think so is I always kind of remind myself if the customer is your true north you'll always be right in the end and I think we always I think a lot of companies whether it's customer service or even walking into a store lose sight of the fact that if you focus in on the customer whoever that customer is in our case it's the NHL fan the collectors if you focus on them in the end you might not be right every time but in the end you'll always be right love that Lov that advice both sides Lov the personal breathe the fun QR code I think you need breathe with the QR code yeah together together like and then no after you scan it then it changes to say

breathe so you don't freak out if I you go and then your Apple watch starts telling you your BR like I think it's yeah pretty good gentlemen this has been an absolute pleasure thanks so much for the time today uh shout out to you and the whole sweet team for what you guys are building uh and bringing new people into the onchain world and really being leaders in sports digital Collectibles we're just getting started as you said very exciting times thank you really appreciate it have a great day thanks for listening everybody have a great day thank you for listening to web through Academy your one trusted source to capitalize on the next big phase of the internet if you enjoyed this episode please share it and subscribe or follow so that you don't miss the next one

while you're at it there's a link in the descript description for our free newsletter where we provide timely and relevant web3 insights so you can confidently build and invest in web 3 make sure to subscribe today one final note this podcast is for educational purposes only and nothing we say is financial advice crypto and web3 are risky and you should never invest more than you're willing to lose thank you friends and see you in the next one